Rights statement: This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 10, 2, 2021 DOI: 10.1016/j.jarmac.2020.12.005
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Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Refuting spurious COVID-19 treatment claims reduces demand and misinformation sharing
AU - MacFarlane, Douglas
AU - Tay, Li
AU - Hurlstone, Mark
AU - Ecker, Ullrich
N1 - This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 10, 2, 2021 DOI: 10.1016/j.jarmac.2020.12.005
PY - 2021/6/30
Y1 - 2021/6/30
N2 - The COVID-19 pandemic has seen a surge of health misinformation, which has had serious consequences including direct harm and opportunity costs. We investigated (N = 678) the impact of such misinformation on hypothetical demand (i.e., willingness-to-pay) for an unproven treatment, and propensity to promote (i.e., like or share) misinformation online. This is a novel approach, as previous research has used mainly questionnaire-based measures of reasoning. We also tested two interventions to counteract the misinformation, contrasting a tentative refutation based on materials used by health authorities with an enhanced refutation based on best-practice recommendations. We found prior exposure to misinformation increased misinformation promotion (by 18%). Both tentative and enhanced refutations reduced demand (by 18% and 25%, respectively) as well as misinformation promotion (by 29% and 55%). The fact that enhanced refutations were more effective at curbing promotion of misinformation highlights the need for debunking interventions to follow current best-practice guidelines.
AB - The COVID-19 pandemic has seen a surge of health misinformation, which has had serious consequences including direct harm and opportunity costs. We investigated (N = 678) the impact of such misinformation on hypothetical demand (i.e., willingness-to-pay) for an unproven treatment, and propensity to promote (i.e., like or share) misinformation online. This is a novel approach, as previous research has used mainly questionnaire-based measures of reasoning. We also tested two interventions to counteract the misinformation, contrasting a tentative refutation based on materials used by health authorities with an enhanced refutation based on best-practice recommendations. We found prior exposure to misinformation increased misinformation promotion (by 18%). Both tentative and enhanced refutations reduced demand (by 18% and 25%, respectively) as well as misinformation promotion (by 29% and 55%). The fact that enhanced refutations were more effective at curbing promotion of misinformation highlights the need for debunking interventions to follow current best-practice guidelines.
KW - Health misinformation
KW - Refutations
KW - Willingness to pay
KW - Online sharing
KW - Coronavirus
U2 - 10.1016/j.jarmac.2020.12.005
DO - 10.1016/j.jarmac.2020.12.005
M3 - Journal article
VL - 10
SP - 248
EP - 258
JO - Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition
JF - Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition
SN - 2211-3681
IS - 2
ER -